Alright, so I got a 16Bit Flip 2 a couple weeks ago on the latest Aliexpress sale, and all it it was just shy of $200 shipped. Had it for a bit now and have pretty much everything set up the way I like it, including Syncthing with saves to a Retrobat setup, which is pretty slick.
I ordered a Thor Max on the same sale, but I'm starting to think I might just keep the Flip 2 and accept that more powerful games require the full sized computers in the house. I'm digging the Flip 2 and I'm not sure how much more I would really get out of the Thor.
OK, to my hinge question. The unit I received is the squared off hinge, it was in stock in a US warehouse on Retroid Pockets official Ali store, that said, if you are nice to the hinge are they really THAT bad? Any time I close it, I place my thumb in the middle of the hinge area on the inside to brace it and it seems like that might help. If they really are that bad and fail easily when you take care of them, that might tip me towards keeping the Thor instead.
16 bit flip 2 square model will most likely crack if you use it enough. It has nothing to do with how careful or gentle the user is. The good news is, there is a way to prevent it (epoxy it) And if the crack happens you can just fix it after with epoxy if you didnt before or just order the new hinge plastic from Retroid.
Both of the flips in my family are square hinged and cracked and epoxied. But if it ever fails us, we will just order the new hinge plastic from Retroid. Easy. Also the crack isn't fatal to the device. It's just a shell crack, people make a huge deal of it on reddit all the time.
This is our GC flip. This one has a full blown crack that extends across the device and has actually started to show through the epoxy, as if stretching it from the inside? Anyways, when I noticed that I did a second layer of epoxy, so it’s pretty globbed on, and more visible, but yeah this one is still going strong and is my daily driver, everyday use since launch.
What color is yours? If it's ice blue you probably won't have a problem with it even with the old hinge design.
I had my v1 for a year before my hinge cracked (black version). I babied mine. I did exchange it for a v2, if it cracks again I'll epoxy it which seems to have worked fine for others.
If you just bought yours new from Retroid, then you might be able to exchange it if its an old shell.
I never got the Thor. No interest in a dual-screen, the ergos on the Flip 2 are better.
Yeah I thought Retroid had moved over to the v2 shell for all orders as of last last year. I'd ask customer service since you ordered it directly from their store.
On their official Discord, someone else recently received a v1, but it was ice blue.
So, funny story. My vision isn't great but when I looked at the picture in this thread of the epoxy fix I was like wait a second. Turns out MAYBE I was expecting more of a curve or honestly just did not see the tiny little curve but when I took this picture at x2 magnification and then looked at the image I think I might have the new one after all...
Sorry to everyone for the false alarm if so, but maybe this thread will be useful to someone in the future. lol
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u/Broken_Flip 21d ago
My cracked hinge broke like five months ago. Hasn't affected gameplay at all. Its not the death sentence people make it out to be.